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Val Thorens Snow Report: 21st March 2014

Last sun report before the snow makes a welcome appearance in Val Thorens!

featured in Snow report Author Robin Deering, Val Thorens Editor Updated

Last day of the week and last day of the clement weather as tomorrow brings wind, a drop in temperature and snow! This weather front is expected to stay with us until Monday with the return of the old current bun on Tuesday.

Today was the French Championship Giant Slalom race in Meribel. French World Cup racers Mathieu Faivre, Thomas Fanara and Alexis Pinturault filled the podium in the men’s race. The race was won by just one hundredth of a second and there was just six hundredths between first and third place! The woman’s race was won by Federica Brignone from Italy, closely followed by French skiers Marion Bertrand and Anne-Sophie Barthet. Tomorrow is the last of the men’s races, the slalom, and the first of the women’s speed races, the SuperG. The Ladies Downhill will be held on Sunday and Monday. If you are skiing come on by to cheer me and Britain’s number one speed skier, Chemmy Alcott, on!

I heard today that this is the first time in over 50 years that Meribel has hosted the French Alpine Ski Championships. Next year Meribel will host the World Cup finals which will be a huge event. The best in the world will be competing and judging by the quality of the events Meribel puts on, it is going to be amazing! Meribel also hosted the Womens Alpine Skiing in the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics.
If you want to feel like an Olympian ski the “Face” piste that runs under the Roc De Fer Chairlift over the back of Mottaret. This was the piste that was created for the ladies Downhill at the 1992 Olympics and is a great run to do first thing as it starts at 2290m so the snow is hard and it is usually empty!

If you are half way up the Tougnette side of the Meribel Valley and looking down over all the Chalets you might be wondering how Meribel started and what it might have looked like before it became a wonderful ski resort. Meribel was actually founded by a Scotsman named Colonel Peter Lindsay. In 1936 the Colonel was looking for a new area to enjoy winter sports away from Austria and Germany due to the rising Nazi Regime. His search brought him to the little village of Les Allues. In 1938 the first ski lift was built above Les Allues and the Colonel started building the first Chalets in a Hamlet he called Meribel. In 1950 the Burgin Saulire Gondola was built to connect Meribel to Courchevel. Peter Lindsays Grandchildren still ski in Meribel and Peter Lindsay’s ashes and those of his wife are scattered on the Burgin mountainside. Meribel connected to the Courchevel Valley and the Les Menuires/Val Thorens valley is one of the biggest linked ski areas in the world.

Next time you’re at the top of the mountain have a look around and see if you can imagine completely bare, just miles and miles of fields and woods covered in powder snow!

Location

Map of the surrounding area